La Loire by H

We woke up early today and skipped breakfast to drive to the Loire Valley. We listened to a story on the ipod called Vanishing Act and before we knew it, we were at Leonardo Da Vinci's house in Amboise. The house, called Chateau de Clos Luce, was cute. It was bigger than our house but not gigantic like some chateaus we saw last year in France. We had a quiz sheet to complete during our tour -- it was pour les enfants (for kids). We learned that Leonardo spent the last three years of his life in the house in Amboise even though he was from Italy. To get to Amboise, he left Italy in the middle of the night and he crossed the Alps on the back of a donkey and carried his two most precious paintings (the Mona Lisa and St. John the Baptist). At the end of the house tour we saw the inventions of Leonardo. They were made from his drawings and they were amazing. There was also a secret underground passage that Da Vinci used to get to the Francois I chateau.

After we toured the house we visited the garden outside where there were even larger inventions. They were really cool. Then, as it started to rain, we walked to a cafe to eat lunch. It was called La Amboisserie. We sat outside (Daddy's decision)and there were millions of little tiny black bugs. I killed a ton but they still landed on my food. Yuck! T and I ordered a california chicken salad with ice cream. I got cassis (black currant). It was delicious. Daddy got a salad and cassis and apricot glace (ice cream). Mommy got an omelet and a crepe du sucre. Since I was in the only open spot (everyone else was under an umbrella), I got pretty wet.

When we finished lunch, we walked back to the car. We opened our new pocket size umbrellas and discovered that they were very very small and only one person fit under each one. As we were walking back to the car, we walked past some school children that were about our age (maybe a year or two younger) adn I noticed that they were pointing at me and T and laughing hysterically. As soon as we passed them, I hid behind a corner and waited for everyone and I took down the umbrella even though it was still raining. Mommy, Daddy, Gram and Papa thought it was funny. Easy for them to say; they weren't the ones being laughed at! I think I will be traumatized forever!

We drove from Amboise to Usse where we saw the sleeping beauty castle. It was a tourist trap and a whole load of tourists got out of the bus just when Daddy was taking our picture. It was funny to see Daddy, Papa, Gram, and Mommy laughing. We ran to the car and headed to another chateau. The second chateau was Azay Le Rideau. It had pretty stained glass windows, a cool billiard room, and water surrounding it. We stopped at a bathroom that smelled horrific. After Usse, we headed to Villandry to see some gardens. Gram and Papa waited outside while the rest of us toured the gardens. We saw giant lettuce, a trimmed garden, a reflecting pond, and a labyrinth. When we left I got raspberry and apricot ice cream. We stopped at an Auchon, got cheese, bread, and desserts and headed home. It was a four hour drive. It was a great day!